Charal

Charal, a Human female hailing from Dathomir, was born into a witch lineage within a Nightsister clan, predating the Galactic Civil War by more than a standard century. As she honed her mastery of her coven's spells, she garnered considerable esteem from her sisters due to her exceptional aptitude in Shadow Magic, particularly the arcane skill of shapeshifting. During her time on her homeworld, Charal also received instruction in horsemanship; diverging from many Nightsisters, she rode a black horse rather than a carnivorous rancor.

Eventually, Charal resolved to depart from her homeworld. She forsook her clan and stole the Talisman of the Raven, a ring that empowered its wearer to undergo a physical transformation into a bird known as a raven. Her act of desertion was met with disapproval, and Charal was branded with a death mark by the other witches, who sought to return her to Dathomir for the purpose of feeding her to the rancors. Pursued relentlessly, Charal spent decades traversing from star system to star system across the galaxy, striving to elude both her former Sisters and those Jedi Knights who hunted down runaway darksiders. She ultimately integrated herself into a band of Sanyassan pirates known as the Marauders, who were themselves fleeing from law enforcement agencies. Terak, the leader of the Sanyassan pirates, consented to establish an alliance with Charal. The witch initially intended to remain with the raiders on their starship only long enough to secure passage on a different vessel, but a shipwreck dashed her aspirations.

The pirates struggled to pilot their stolen Star Cruiser, and their navigator proved incapable of managing the intricate gravity patterns of the Endor system. In 96 BBY, their vessel crashed on the Sanctuary Moon of Endor, a protected nature reserve situated in the Moddell sector. Like numerous other unfortunate travelers, the shipwrecked witch found herself stranded due to the stellar anomalies surrounding Endor.

While on Endor, Charal remained with the Marauders. Their leader, Terak, proclaimed himself King, taking residence in a primitive castle located in the plains of the Dragon's Pelt savanna. Employing her Talisman to considerable effect, the Nightsister used displays of its power to intimidate the Sanyassan pirates, eventually rising to rule over them as Terak's cohort. A delicate equilibrium of power existed between Terak and Charal, with each seeking opportunities to gain an advantage over the other. Driven by delusions of grandeur, Charal styled herself as the Witch-Queen of Endor. In collaboration with the Sanyassans, Charal consistently preyed upon the more peaceful inhabitants of the Forest Moon, most notably the diminutive Ewoks. She maintained a notable antagonism with Logray, the Ewok shaman of Bright Tree Village, who was admittedly wary of her power.

Around 26 BBY, Charal and the Marauders captured Salak Weet, a stranded humanoid scout. Weet spoke of his Star Cruiser hidden within the forests, informing the Marauders of the vessel's capacity to travel through realspace by means of "power." While much of the galactic community regarded what the scout described as commonplace technology, Charal and the Sanyassans remained entrenched in primitive modes of thought. They interpreted Weet's words literally, and Terak became fixated on discovering the "power" of the stars that the scout had mentioned.

Although Charal occupied a position of authority, not all of the Marauders held the witch in fear. During their time on Endor, Charal and the Sanyassan scholar Szingo developed a bitter rivalry. One day, after Marauder scouts shot down a pirate ship, Szingo requested a passing spacer to disintegrate the survivors and deliver their leader's weapon to him. Upon learning of this discovery, Charal raided the crashed ship with several Sanyassan henchmen and destroyed the wreckage to ensure that the scholar would find nothing further. Szingo, seeking revenge, ordered the spacer to kill the Marauders who had carried out this act of treachery. When the offworlder complied, Terak expressed displeasure at the deaths of his men, prompting Szingo to attempt to place the blame on Charal. However, the Nightsister employed her sorcery to demonstrate her lack of involvement in the attack, thereby shielding herself from the King's wrath.

In 1 ABY, Charal was engaged in the preparation of a poultice intended to aid her in divining the future. A spacer passing by offered their assistance. Charal seized this opportunity and directed the spacer to venture into the woods to retrieve the spleen of a healthy Ewok. Upon the spacer's return with the spleen, Charal incorporated it into her poultice. To acquire the next ingredient, the Witch-Queen dispatched "Lizardman," a dimwitted Trandoshan slave whom she employed as her personal assistant, owing to his keen sense of smell for the specific type of herb she required. When he failed to return, Charal opted to enlist the spacer once more, this time to retrieve Lizardman. The spacer complied, returning with Lizardman in tow. Fortunately for Charal, the Trandoshan possessed the necessary herbs. For her final ingredient, the Witch-Queen required Ewok spittle. The spacer assisted her again, retrieving a whole, live Ewok and returning it to the Marauder's Stronghold.

Pleased, Charal extracted the required saliva from the captive and completed her poultice. Through its use, she experienced a vision of numerous ships landing on the Forest Moon, ships she planned to commandeer. She also discerned that a ship had recently crashed on Endor, and that the survivors of the crash possessed a comlink, a communication device that would enable her to seize the ships that would be landing in the future. Enlisting the spacer once more, whom she now regarded as a slave, Charal instructed her servant to steal the comlink from the crash survivors. The spacer ventured forth, killed the survivors, and returned with the device. The Witch-Queen was overjoyed; with the comlink in her possession, she believed she would be able to control the universe. Content, Charal dismissed her servant; by adhering to the spacer's own destiny, Charal reasoned, the spacer would serve the witch's as well.

When the Galactic Empire first explored the Sanctuary Moon, the Marauders captured the Imperial scouting party, which included a Human Sergeant named Pfilbee Jhorn. Charal embraced the hope that she could finally escape with the Imperials. Nevertheless, the Marauders simply confined the intruders to their gritty cellblocks, depriving them of their possessions, and tortured one of them to death. Unbeknownst to Terak, the Force witch surreptitiously entered the dungeons to negotiate with Jhorn and his men. Charal pledged to assist the survey team in escaping, provided they swore to take her with them. The prisoners agreed to the arrangement, but Terak discovered Charal's treachery before she could make her escape. Enraged, he had the Sister thrown into a cage, even as the Imperials fled to freedom. The woman remained imprisoned until the King eventually consented to forgive her betrayal and reinstate her as his second-in-command.

By 3 ABY, the Imperials had returned to Endor and commenced construction of a deflector shield generator and a bunker on the Dulok Swamp. Their presence on the green moon had awakened the Griagh, a monstrous beast that had long been considered mythical. Amidst these events, Charal had a confrontation with the shaman Logray. He had arrived with his apprentice Paploo to discuss the recent occurrences with her. When the old Ewok permitted her to touch the Sunstar, Charal experienced a potent vision that provided her with a glimpse of the perils to come.

Enticed by the power of the Sunstar, she demanded that Logray relinquish it to her. Faced with the Ewoks' refusal, Charal adopted an offensive stance. Employing her magic to summon a group of Dulok skeletons, she prevented Paploo from defending the shaman, whom she ensnared by causing giant brambles to grow and twist around him. The witch's plans nearly succeeded, until Paploo eliminated the undead Duloks and used his slingshot to knock the Sunstar from her grasp. The shot not only struck Charal's hand, but it also impacted her talisman, instantly transforming the witch into her raven form. Finding herself temporarily defeated, the Witch-Queen of Endor retreated. In an act of retaliation, she later arranged for Logray and Paploo to be ambushed by a group of Imperial stormtroopers. While still in raven form, the Dathomiri woman scratched one of the stormtroopers' helmets with her claws, prompting the trooper to pursue her into the woods. This allowed Charal to lead the Imperials directly to the Ewoks.

In 3.5 ABY, Charal accompanied the Marauders during an attack on Bright Tree Village, an Ewok settlement where the Human Towani family had sought refuge after crashing on Endor in their Star Cruiser. Terak still sought what he referred to as the "power"—in reality, the crystal oscillator from the family's spacecraft—which he believed the Towanis possessed. Consequently, during the attack, the Witch-Queen ventured to the location of the downed vessel. There, Charal discovered the family patriarch, Jeremitt Towani, working on the ship; she commanded the Marauders to beat him in an effort to ascertain the location of the "power." In due course, Terak himself arrived and began interrogating the man. Towani claimed ignorance, but Terak firmly believed that the man was the "Guardian of the power." Terak removed the ship's crystal oscillator and triumphantly announced to his men that he had the "power." At that moment, Towani lunged for a blaster pistol and shot down one of the Marauders before attempting to escape. Terak, satisfied with his find, dispatched his men after the Human.

Using her ring, Charal transformed into her raven form and tracked down Jeremitt Towani, who was hiding with his daughter, Cindel. The Witch-Queen alerted the Marauders to their location, but the girl escaped into the woods. As Charal gave chase, the Marauders found and killed the elder Towani. The Human girl was unable to run far, however—the Witch-Queen reverted to her normal form and stopped the young Towani in her tracks. With the rest of her family now dead, the young girl was taken captive by Terak's Marauders. However, she escaped from their custody with the assistance of the captured Ewoks while they were en route to Terak's Keep. Back at the castle, Charal attempted to use her Force-witch magic to activate the crystal oscillator, but without success. She suggested to Terak that the Towani girl might be able to help activate the device, but her remark only incensed the King. He immediately ordered Charal and the Marauders to locate and recapture the young Human.

As a raven, Charal set out into the woods. She was able to ascertain that Towani was staying with another Human living on Endor, an older man named Noa Briqualon. The day after she had made her discovery, Charal distanced herself from Briqualon's residence and began calling Cindel Towani's name, replicating the voice of Catarine Towani, the young girl's mother. As the child drew nearer, Charal began singing "My Star," one of the young Towani's favorite songs. To further entice her prey, the Witch-Queen assumed the appearance of a much younger Human with golden hair and white robes. Nearby, she had a white horse waiting. When Towani entered her presence, the disguised witch had the young girl bring a nearby robe to her. Taking the garment, Charal quickly transformed into her normal self and seized Towani. Her new captive in tow, Charal mounted her horse, which was now black, and rode for Terak's Keep.

The witch brought Cindel Towani before the Marauder king, and both ordered the girl to release "the power" of the crystal oscillator. Towani confessed that she did not know how to use the crystal, sending Terak into a fit of anger. The Sanyassan imprisoned both Charal and the girl in his stronghold's dungeon. Behind the bars, the Nightsister scolded Towani for not giving Terak what he had demanded. The witch also revealed that it was Briqualon's friend Salak Weet—now lying dead in one of the cells—who had first told them of "the power" contained in the energy cells. Meanwhile, Towani's friends sneaked into the stronghold to free the girl, as well as the Marauders' Ewok captives. Briqualon, Wicket Wystri Warrick, and Briqualon's Teek companion made it to the cellblocks and set their friends free. For a moment, Charal hoped she would be able to escape too, and she asked Warrick to open her cage. Towani, however, took the keys from her Ewok companion before he could comply. The party left the castle, taking the crystal oscillator with them.

When Terak learned of the jailbreak, he decided to lead a punitive expedition to retrieve the crystal. He turned to Charal and commanded her to go after the fugitives. He allowed the Force witch to use her Talisman to change into a raven again, but this time, Terak grabbed the bird by the leg and seized the ring. The Sanyassan wanted to keep Charal in bird form so she would track the group without betraying him and running away. The Nightsister flew off with the full Marauder army close behind. When they finally reached their targets at Briqualon's Star Cruiser, a battle ensued between the Marauders and the Ewoks. Charal observed the fighting in bird form, flying around the battlefield. During Terak's final duel with Briqualon, Warrick intervened and used his sling to hit the Sanyassan warlord. However, the Ewok's aim was low: instead of hitting Terak between the eyes, the rock struck Charal's ring, which was around his neck. The Talisman of the Raven shattered, unleashing its powers on the Marauder leader and burning him to a crisp, as well as trapping Charal in her animal form forever. She swooped down to the ground to try to reclaim the remains of her ring, circled frantically overhead and then flew away into the forest, shrieking. What became of her subsequently remained a mystery.

Against the advice of Sergeant Jhorn, who had been tortured by the Marauders, Galactic Emperor Palpatine opted to construct the shield generator for his second Death Star battle station on Endor's forest moon, and the satellite fell under the Empire's control. Several months following the defeat of Charal and the Sanyassans, members of the Rebel Alliance sought to destroy the Death Star, leading them to Endor to disable the shield generator. Upon Wicket Warrick's initial encounter with Alliance heroine Princess Leia Organa, he recalled his prior interactions with Humans, and the memory of Charal continued to evoke shivers of fear. The Death Star was ultimately destroyed from within by the Alliance Fleet, and Endor regained its freedom.

When agents of the New Republic—the democratic government established by the Alliance—scouted the forests, they found no trace of the Marauders or Charal. Lacking knowledge of the conflict between the Sanyassans and the Ewoks, the agents remained unaware of what had transpired with the witch. In their reports, they incorrectly speculated that Palpatine had killed Charal, as he would not have tolerated another dangerous Force-user residing on the moon he intended to utilize.

Charal, a striking Human female, possessed a height of 1.77 meters, exhibiting a lean build, sharp facial angles, hair as dark as a raven's wing, and eyes of a verdant hue. Her attire consisted of a black and red grafiform robe adorned with octopus-like appendages, a cloak crafted from black feathers, and a form-fitting Nightsister breastplate. Despite her advanced age during the Galactic Civil War, appearing to be of an age that was difficult to determine. She occasionally enhanced her aesthetic with the application of vibrant red lipstick and nail polish, complemented by green eyeshadow.

Following her accidental arrival on Endor, the Force-sensitive witch harbored a deep resentment for the Forest Moon, yearning to depart its confines. She held her ally, the Sanyassan King Terak, in utter disdain, secretly desiring to dissolve their partnership. Charal exploited every chance to outmaneuver the warlord and amplify her personal influence within the Marauders, yet maintained a discreet demeanor in the king's presence, avoiding any direct confrontation. The witch also felt a sense of competition with the scholar Szingo, a figure of lesser authority within the Marauders' stronghold.

The Witch-Queen also held her slave, Lizardman, in low regard, wishing for a more intellectually capable assistant. She reacted with considerable displeasure to any instances of insubordination or disrespect from those she considered beneath her. Charal often addressed those in her service as "slave" or "servant," although she quickly corrected herself after doing so. Although inherently wicked and an active proponent of slavery, she was more inclined toward vanity and opportunism than outright malice toward those around her. She spoke to her underlings in a condescending but often affectionate manner, never attempting to inflict harm or death upon them. The Witch-Queen highly valued standard technology like a comlink, believing it could unlock limitless power. Her people, the Witches of Dathomir, were essentially primitivists, having rejected technology on philosophical grounds. Even after Dathomir's integration into the New Republic in 8 ABY, the Witches largely maintained their traditional way of life.

During her time on Dathomir, Charal was considered a highly proficient witch by her peers. Utilizing her ring, Charal possessed the ability to transform into the form of a raven. Adhering to the customs of Nightsister magic, she primarily channeled her powers through vocalizations. Similar to many other witches, she was endowed with Force powers such as Animal Affinity, Summon Storm, and Force Whirlwind. She also had the capacity to locate other individuals and compel them to follow her commands. She could manipulate spirit ichor in the form of green smoke, using it as extensions of her limbs to strike adversaries or levitate them. Furthermore, she possessed the ability to reanimate corpses, a skill she shared with other powerful sorceresses such as Old Daka. Through a Nightsister ability known as Surge of the Brier, she could rapidly grow and manipulate plants.

Charal also had practical, non-magical skills. She was a skilled martial artist and was also adept with various weaponry, including blaster pistols. She was also a skilled equestrian—she owned a black stallion that she could transform into a white steed using magic. In addition to these skills, Charal was fluent in at least four languages: Galactic Basic Standard, Ewokese, Sanyassan, and Dathomiri.

Charal's creation was for the 1985 made-for-television movie, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. Her name was the result of ABC Entertainment's pressure on the film's co-directors, Jim and Ken Wheat, to cast Cheryl Ladd as the witch. In the film itself, Charal was played by Siân Phillips in her natural form and Marianne Horine in her youthful witch guise. The character's design came from American director and artist Joe Johnston, who initially imagined her as a greenish-skinned humanoid.

The specifics of Charal's origins and history remained unclear until 1995, when Kevin J. Anderson used retconned to establish her as a Witch of Dathomir in The Illustrated Star Wars Universe. The Force witches had been introduced a year prior in Dave Wolverton's novel The Courtship of Princess Leia.

In the 2000s, Charal appeared as a non-player character in the Star Wars-themed MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, where she gave quests to player characters who could travel between planets in spacecraft. Despite her eagerness to leave Endor, as depicted in the game, Charal did not attempt to negotiate passage with the spacers she encountered.

During the development of the Nightsister episodes in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, supervising director Dave Filoni created sketches of Charal and considered including her in the series. Charal was mentioned indirectly in Daniel Wallace's Book of Sith: Secrets from the Dark Side, within the Wild Power section. There, Clan Mother Talzin states, "One of our sisters has yet to return the Talisman of the Raven." In his notes at the end of the Book of Sith, Wallace revealed that the Talisman of the Raven was specifically intended as a reference to Charal and her magical abilities.

In "Who's Who in Star Wars Galaxies," an article published in 2003 in Star Wars Insider 65, it was stated that Terak's pursuit of "power" led him to form an alliance with Charal. However, both Charal's Databank entry on StarWars.com and The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, published in 2008, indicated that the Nightsister joined the Marauders prior to the crash on Endor, which occurred decades before Terak learned of the "power" from Salak Weet. This article follows the timeline presented in the Complete Encyclopedia, as it is the more recent source.

In October 2013, Charal was featured as a minor antagonist in Star Wars: Ewoks—Shadows of Endor, a trade paperback published by Dark Horse Comics. The comic's creator, Zack Giallongo, mentioned that his portrayal of the character was designed to more closely resemble the Nightsisters depicted in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Notably, Charal summons corpses to fight for her, similar to how the Nightsister Daka did in "Massacre," the nineteenth episode of the animated series' fourth season. Giallongo clarified that Charal lacked the power to resurrect an entire army.

As the "Witch of Endor," Charal shares a biblical connection with the woman consulted by King Saul, who summoned the spirit of Samuel from the dead, as recounted in the First Book of Samuel.